Picturing poverty

March 25, 2013

Blog series, Perspectives of Poverty, really cracked me up. Duncan McNicholl from Engineers without Borders in Malawi says: “I take two photos of the same person– one photo with the typical symbols of poverty (dejected look, ripped clothes, etc.), and another of this person looking their very finest, to show how an image can be carefully constructed to present the same person in very different ways. ” The most hilarious part is how the people in the photo shoots can hardly keep a straight face while trying to look ‘poor’, as they know they are mocking stereotypes of media representation. But “no one had any trouble putting on their best and looking sharp.”

Travelling to one small town recently for a field visit to families in collective housing, one lady let us take photos of her home. We sent the photos to donors who will choose beneficiaries for the next round of reconstruction; of course we had to take photos of the toilet, the leaking roof… Here I wanted to share the pretty side of her apartment. She lives in such difficult conditions and yet she still makes the effort to decorate the space where she lives; it’s full of her personality and her personal history.